


Marinette March 2020

by Jarl_Deathwolf



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Baking, Camping, Crack, Domestic Fluff, F/M, Fluff, Gaming, Identity Reveal, Marinette March, Marriage Proposal, POV Marinette Dupain-Cheng
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-01
Updated: 2020-03-31
Packaged: 2021-02-28 03:00:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 31
Words: 17,123
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22976542
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jarl_Deathwolf/pseuds/Jarl_Deathwolf
Summary: My second year of Marinette March, these will also be a collection of stand alone drabbles, all of which starring Marinette. These drabbles will be staying positive and fluffy - just like she deserves!
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Alya Césaire/Nino Lahiffe
Comments: 521
Kudos: 561





	1. New Beginnings

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to my first chapter of Marinette March! Due to the rules of the event, I will be avoiding making shipping-centric stories. However, as this first chapter shows, I will not be avoiding them entirely. That being said expect mostly stories based on friendships and her personal hopes, fears and aspirations. 
> 
> I hope you enjoy! :D

In a dozen tiny ways, things had gotten worse since the reveal. Awkward conversations in and out of the mask. Less familiar contact between them. Stolen glances since they could barely meet each other’s eyes. 

Once Marinette had inherited the miracle box, it had seemed so clear that she should learn the identity of the only other hero remaining - Chat Noir himself. How could she do her duty as the Guardian if one of the most powerful miraculous was in use by someone she didn’t know?

Although that was a bit of a lie. She may not have known his name, but Marinette knew Chat Noir. Fighting alongside someone for a year helped with that. The patrols helped too - especially the patrols where they never left their meeting spot, opting instead to hang their feet over the edge of the Eiffel Tower, letting the hours waste away as they joked and talked and cried. 

But with this reveal? All that seemed to be changing.

“I don’t understand, Tikki!” Marinette pulled on her pigtails in frustration. “What happened?! One minute, we were fine and one reveal later and we’re both complete _messes_!”

“I… wouldn’t say you are messes, exactly,” Tikki said hesitantly. 

“What do you call that last akuma fight, then? We were completely out of sync!” 

Which was true - he might have followed her as unquestioningly as always, but he seemed… distracted. Not entirely present for the fights. Even his well of puns had seemingly dried up. Marinette couldn’t quite pin down what exactly it was, but something had definitely changed in their partnership. 

“It’s all new, Marinette!” Tikki floated in front of her face. “Give it some time to settle down, for you two to come to terms with everything. After all, _both_ of you were pretty surprised at the truth.” She gave a meaningful look at Marinette.

“Okay, yes.” Marinette threw her hands in the air. “I screamed and ran away when I saw it was Adrien under the mask. But!” She held up her pointer fingers as if to quiet Tikki preemptively. “I apologized for that already! We should be good now… right?”

“Maybe.” Tikki shrugged. “All I’m saying is that it’ll take a little bit for you both to get used to it.”

“I know, but…” Marinette sighed. “I just want my kitty back.”

“Well, you’ll have plenty of time to spend with him today at school.”

“I suppose… When does class start?”

“Mmm…” Tikki hummed as she zipped over to the clock. “Five minutes from now.”

With a terrified shriek, Marinette rushed to get ready, throwing on clothes and roughly combing her hair. She was about to forsake even breakfast when an angry growl from her stomach made her snag a croissant on her way out the door. Like the superhero she was, she miraculously managed to make it into the classroom just as the bell rang. Her stammered excuses died in her throat as Ms Bustier just waved her in with a small smile. 

Which is when she locked eyes with Adrien. For once, he didn’t look way immediately and she could look deep into his emerald stare. 

She was used to the way that Chat Noir looked at Ladybug, but… this was something else entirely. With all the love in his eyes, it was like he thought she had painted the stars and moon into the night sky herself. It stopped her in her tracks and took her breath away…

...At least until Ms Bustier cleared her throat. 

Adrien coughed to hide his flaming red cheeks and turned away, breaking eye contact with her. Marinette shambled to her seat, knowing that her face was just as red as his, but somehow not caring.

Maybe change wasn’t that bad after all.


	2. Letting Go

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I gift you with some Ladrien cuddles.

“I really need to go home,” Ladybug said, but even to her ears she sounded half hearted.

Adrien’s grip around her waist tightened just a little. Not enough to be uncomfortable, but just enough to let her know that he had no intentions of letting go.

Her eyes looked out the massive windows of his bedroom, saw the snowflakes catching the light from the street lamps. The very thought of going out there right now would have sent a shiver down her spine, if it weren’t for Adrien’s warmth surrounding her. Despite what she said, she bunched up the fabric of his shirt in her fists and pressed herself closer to him, buried her nose in his chest even as his face nuzzled against the crown of her head. 

Lavender. She’d always loved the smell, even before she met him, but now that she’d associated the scent with him that love had doubled. It made her weak in the knees whenever she caught a whiff of it during the day, when she didn’t have the confidence her mask gave her.

Was that how she’d ended up in this mess in the first place? Too much confidence from the spots, with good sense drowned out by affection?

Whatever the reason, she couldn’t bring herself to regret it, even if it had become a guilty pleasure. Duty was supposed to come first, and Ladybug dating a civilian - especially one with as many cameras tracking them as Adrien - could never happen. But… she was human. Couldn’t she indulge in a cuddle every now and again?

She wasn’t sure how long they stayed like that, listening to his heart beat a steady rhythm as his hand ran through her hair. But eventually she groaned into his chest and began to pull away.

“Are you sure?” He said, eyes full of innocent yearning. His hands fell to his sides as she propped herself up. 

“Yeah… I’m sure,” she lied. A frown found its way to her face as she looked out the window again. “I’m not going to like the trip, but I’ve got to go home.”

“You could… spend the night?” She looked back at him to see his entire face a deep, blushing red. When she raised an eyebrow, he quickly added, “I’d be sleeping on the couch, of course! But, uh, are you sure you should be out in this… this weather?” He picked up speed as he wrung his hands in front of him, looking down and away from her. “I-I mean your suit’s feet don’t have much traction. Not that I’ve been looking or anything! Plus, um, plus aren’t ladybugs supposed to be hibernating in winter? You might get tired on the way back home and-”

Her finger on his lips silenced him. He tensed but saw the soft smile on her lips and relaxed. After a few moments, she pulled her hand back and he sighed.

“I’m sorry.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “I know you have to go. I just… I don’t want you to.”

“And I don’t want to either, but I have to. I promise I’ll be fine.” Mustering all her Ladybug confidence, she rocked forward to pressed a kiss to his cheek. “See you later, hot stuff.”

Then she swung out from his window, barely minding noticing the cold from how furiously her cheeks were blushing. 


	3. Vacation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A little ladynoir interaction as the storm clouds gather.

With a huff, Ladybug dropped down to sit cross legged next to Chat Noir. She rested her chin in her hands and propped her elbows up on her knees as she glared out at the city.

“Well aren’t you in a good mood,” Chat teased. He gently tapped her temple with the knuckle of one of his fingers. “What’s going on up here, m’lady?”

Ladybug turned to look at him and saw the patient kindness in his eyes. Which was sweet but also annoying since it meant that he wasn’t going to let up until he got an answer out of her. 

“It’s just…” She gestured irritatedly at the city at large. “They’re all counting on us and we never know when an akuma might attack, so we always have to be here and it's just… so exhausting.”

“Yeah…” Chat said, patting her back. “Being a hero is a pretty rough gig. Between school and work-”

“Plus friends and family,” Ladybug added, remembering all the times she’d had to cancel plans with Alya.

“...right, plus them, it's a lot to juggle and keep everything in the air. And sure,” Chat said with a grin, “we’re just that amazing and we can do it, but it still wears thin sometimes.” He lowered his head so he was at eye level with her. “But you know all that already. What happened to get you all riled up this time?”

She sighed. “Chat… you know we can’t talk about personal stuff like that.”

“Fair enough,” he replied, taking it in stride. He hummed to himself for a few moments before snapping his fingers. “We could really use a vacation.”

Ladybug laughed. “You’re not wrong, but didn’t you hear me about that whole ‘always have to be here’ thing?”

“True, true, but what if we beat Hawkmoth tomorrow? Where would you want to go?”

“I don’t know...” Ladybug frowned in thought. A cold wind blew past them, making her shiver. “Somewhere warm, for sure.” 

She scooted closer to Chat. His tail wrapped around her waist, seemingly on its own, though Ladybug wasn’t sure how much she believed that. 

“What about a nice, warm beach? Just you and me, soaking up the sun with just the soothing sound of the ocean hitting the sand for company.”

“A beach, huh?” She smirked and poked him on the nose. “I feel like a certain kitty might have ulterior motives for that destination. One involving swimsuits.”

“Naturally.” Chat nodded and grinned right back at her. “Just one look at me in just swim trunks and you’d fall for me for sure.”

“Dream on, kitty.” She scoffed, but it quickly turned into a yawn. She rested her head against his shoulder. “What else do you got?”

“Well…”

With eyes closed so she could focus on his soothing voice, Ladybug listened to her chaton tell her about all his vacation ideas. Camping in the woods. Tropical island getaway. Alpine cabin. Jagged Stone concert. All of which somehow ended up with her falling for him in increasingly silly ways. 

It suddenly didn't matter that she was atop a chilly rooftop in Paris. Ladybug was as cozy as could be.


	4. Dough

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just two friends, making bread.

Things changed when the reveal happened. Little things, by and large, but mostly positive things. Like becoming just as good friends out of the mask as they were in it. And getting just a little better at reading each other. 

One of Adrien’s favorite things was how often he got to go over to the Dupain-Cheng bakery. He’d always loved it there, but he never had a proper excuse for it, bar a few exceptions. But now? He was over there so often, her parents had started making extra for lunch, just for him. They’d even joked about having him work there, so he’d basically be a member of the family.

Which is when he’d mentioned that he didn’t know anything about cooking, let alone bread. All at once, the bakery went eerily quiet. 

And that was why he was wearing an apron in the bakery at the moment, standing next to Marinette as she pointed at the ingredients and explained what they would be doing. 

“Now,” Marinette said, “there are a lot of different kinds of bread and we have a specialty here that uses rice flour, but I think we should start simple and make baguettes.”

“Ooo, a house specialty! Can’t we use rice flour for the baguettes?” 

“Not legally, no.” At Adrien’s shocked look, Marinette added, “For something to be legally called a baguette, it has to be made with just wheat flour, salt, and yeast. We can’t get _too_ wild and crazy with it.”

“I bow to your expertise, bread-sensei,” Adrien said, doing just that. When he rose, Marinette was rolling her eyes with a smile. 

“I expect you to refer to me as such for the rest of the day, chaton,” she said, booping his nose. “So, baguettes. We won’t be doing any oil or herbs or any fancy nonsense like that.” She pulled a few ingredients close to her. “First off, we’re going to put some yeast and salt in a bowl of water. Can you measure out some flour?”

He moved toward the bag with a measuring cup in hand. “How many cups do we need?”

“Cups?” She smirked. “No no no. You measure in weight, like a professional. Bring me one hundred twenty grams.”

He did so, adding it to the mix. “Now what, bread-sensei?”

“Now is the fun part.” She stood aside and gestured for him to take her spot. Her hands pulled his into the bowl and she guided him with the first few moments of kneading. His cheeks were on fire as she pulled away. “A-anyway, yeah. Just keep doing that until there aren’t any dry spots remaining.

Adrien swallowed and did as he was told. Running his hands through the squishy mess was very fun and it didn’t take him long to get lost in the kneading. Her hand brushed his wrist.

“I think you’ve got it, chaton.” She gently pushed him aside and covered the bowl. “Now, you want it covered but not airtight. Then you leave it in a warm spot to rise for a little while.”

Nodding along, Adrien asked, “What’re we going to do in the meantime?”

“How about some Mecha Strike? Between matches, we can come out and flip the dough.”

“Sounds like a plan to me.”

Of course, the plan involved him losing every single match to Marinette, but how could he complain whenever she wore such a cute smile at every victory? Honestly, winning was overrated anyway. After a little under an hour of this, they put their aprons back on and returned to the kitchen.

“Naturally, we’ll need to cook the bread, so let me just start heating the oven while we move onto the next step.” She dusted off her hands and returned. “Right, so now we start putting the dough into bread shape.” 

“And how do we-” Marinette dumped the dough out onto the table, cutting Adrien off. He watched as she began dividing the dough up. After watching her fold her half of the dough for a few moments, he started mimicking it on his own half. “Like this?”

She glanced over at him. “You’re doing great! See how it's already starting to get bigger by itself?” 

“Oh wow!” He grinned as he worked. Forget the miraculous - _this_ was where the real magic was.

Her motions changed and he looked over to see her rolling her dough into a more log-like shape. Without prompting, he started following her lead again and before long they had something that was starting to look like a traditional baguette. After putting some towels on them and letting them rise a little more, they returned.

“Almost done, chaton!” Marinette said proudly. “And I gotta say yours is coming along pretty good for the first try.”

“Well, it helps I had such an amazing bread-sensei,” he replied. She bit her lip as a blush colored her cheeks. 

“Th-thanks.” She held her hand in front of the oven. “Feels hot. Time to let them bake!” She slide the loaves into the bakery oven and wiped her hands on the apron. “It’ll be like half an hour. Want to do some more Mecha Strike?”

As ways to kill half an hour went, it wasn’t half bad. Especially when Marinette scooted over to his side of the couch to lean against him. If he hadn’t already been losing before, he certainly wouldn’t have been able to focus then. He was almost disappointed when they got back up to check on the baguettes, at least until he caught the scent of delicious baking bread. 

“And now the hardest part,” Marinette said as she pulled out the baguettes, gently setting them on the kitchen counter. She smacked Adrien’s hand as he reached out for them. “We have to let them cool first.”

Adrien glanced between Marinette and the bread. It looked so soft and warm, and it was easily the most delicious thing that he had smelled all day. Was it even better than the usual from the bakery since he’d helped make it? He’d certainly been trying to add extra love with every step. He could only hope some of it had ended up in the final product. 

But then, as he watched Marinette take her first bite into the bread and saw the way her face light up, felt the way his heart began beating wildly in response… Maybe all his love had been tied up elsewhere.


	5. Babysitting

Ladybug loved her partners.

She really did. 

The problem, she reflected as she wrapped Rena Rouge in her yoyo and pulled her out of the way of the akuma’s giant fist, was that they were showy dumbasses. 

Somehow, during the last akuma battle, Chat Noir and Rena Rouge had gotten into an argument about who could pull off the most amazing superhero moves. It had been tedious enough listening to their childish debating during that fight, but Ladybug had _thought_ that going a while without calling on Rena Rouge would have been enough to put it out of their heads. 

Sadly, this was not the case, she realized as she watched Chat Noir launch himself at the akuma’s head, with predictable results. 

She hadn’t even had time to summon her second lucky charm yet, being too busy keeping her partners’ reckless heroism from getting them knocked out of the fight. Maybe she should have brought Carapace in. Shelter wouldn’t have been helpful, but at least she wouldn’t have to deal with this.

Cursing under her breath, she decided to risk it and pull back a little. Maybe if she moved fast, she could pull off a quick lucky charm and get this fight back on track. 

“Lucky- ack!” Ladybug was cut off part way through by the akuma’s third fist clenching around her, rising her into the air. She caught a glimpse of Rena and Chat staring up at her in shock before grim determination settled onto both of their features. They locked eyes, nodded and got to work.

To her immense surprise, they moved in excellent tandem. Maybe not as well as her and Chat, but better than she expected from two people who had spent the entire fight trying to one up each other. With laser focus, they busted Ladybug out of the clutches of the villain and fell right in step with her to take down the akuma in record time.

Just as she released the purified akuma, she realized she should congratulate them. After all, despite the rocky start they’d pulled it off in the end. She turned around, opened her mouth, and-

“I’m just saying, it was _my_ baton that pried open that hand.”

“Yeah?” Rena Rouge raised her eyebrow, a smug smirk on her face. “If it weren’t for my illusion, you’d never have gotten close enough to even use your little stick.”

“I’ll admit, that was great flute tooting,” Chat said, making Rena narrow her eyes. “But the real heroics was being done by yours truly.”

“As if! I-” 

Ladybug cleared her throat, catching both of their attention. She crossed her arms in front of her and stared them down. They at least had the good sense to look embarrassed. At least until Rena’s necklace began to beep. 

“This isn’t over, leather boy!” Rena called as she followed Ladybug away from the gathering crowd.

“Whatever you say, fellow furry!”

Ladybug smiled to herself. They might get on her nerves sometimes, but she couldn’t have asked for a better team. 


	6. Double Life

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keeping her two lives separate is sometimes more than Marinette can handle.

Not for the first time, Ladybug was wondering how she got herself into these kinds of messes.

What else was she supposed to have done, though? These akumas were becoming more and more inconveniently timed, but Marinette couldn’t just say that she was going to go fight them. Alya had looked so disappointed that Marinette had to cancel their plans last minute, she blurted out the first thing she could think of to brighten her mood. 

Which meant now she was rehearsing her story that she was going to give Chat Noir, and hopefully convince him to give an interview to her best friend. Chat had surprisingly proved to be the most elusive of the miraculous heroes when it came to interviews, always fading out of sight whenever reporters or paparazzi appeared. If she didn’t know better, she’d think that he practiced it in his civilian life. 

To her complete lack of surprise, Chat Noir was already at their usual meet up spot as he waited for her to arrive for patrol. His ears perked up when she landed, his keen hearing picking up even her soft footfalls. His face lit up when he stood up to meet her.

“You’re the vision of loveliness as always, m’lady,” he said, bowing to her and pulling her hand to his lips. 

“And a good evening to _you_ , chaton.” She took her hand back at the last moment and booped him on the nose. She smiled at the way his eyes crossed trying to follow the movement. “I’ve got a favor to ask you, before we get started on patrol.”

“Oh? And what’s that?”

“Could you do an interview with Alya Cesaire for me? You know - the person behind the Ladyblog?”

Chat blinked in confusion. “I, uh… huh. Not quite what I was expecting.” He rubbed the back of his neck. Suddenly, he froze and looked at her searchingly. “Why do you ask? Do you know the Ladyblogger?”

Looking back, she realized she could have said yes because they’d certainly had plenty of opportunities to meet as Ladybug and Alya. But, in the moment, Ladybug panicked and in the attempt to hide her connection to Alya…

“N-no! Marinette told me. Apparently they’re friends, and, um, yeah.”

“So… you know Marinette?” Chat asked. Strangely, he seemed intrigued by the idea.

“Yeah! We’ve, uh, we’ve bumped into each other sometimes.”

“Cool!” Ladybug blinked in surprise as Chat rubbed his hands in excitement. “She’s pretty great, huh?”

“I… guess?” 

Chat scoffed. “You must not have hung out a lot then if you aren’t sure. But trust me, she is amazing. Great designer, super brave, very clever. One of these days we should give her another miraculous.” He cupped his chin, a dopey grin on his face. “Or maybe just bring her back as Multimouse? She did a beautiful job on that one, its not her fault she got a little excited. And is it so bad if I’m the only one who knows about her? Besides you, of course.” 

Ladybug opened her mouth but no words came out. Did the silly cat figure out her secret identity and was just messing with her? Or did he seemingly fall for her again?

“Well, think about it, m’lady. I’m sure you’ll warm up to her eventually. And don’t worry,” he said with a wink. “My heart still belongs only to you.”

Chat ran off to start patrol and it was only when he’d gotten a good lead on her that she realized that he had never said yes to the interview. Cursing, she chased after him. He wasn’t getting away _that_ easily!


	7. Memes

The supervillains, she had expected when she signed up for this superhero thing. The news coverage hadn’t been on her mind, but it was obvious in retrospect. The memes, though? The memes caught her by surprise.

Part of it was because they were memes about her and her friends, even if nobody but her knew that. Seeing how people completely out of the loop viewed them, connected with them, was surreal and oddly touching at times. 

While each of them had given rise to their own class of memes, her favorites by far were Chat Noir memes. And those seemed to be the most popular by far. Maybe it was because Chat Noir himself was a pretty goofy guy and it made people connect with him more. 

As she scrolled through pictures of her partner edited, with captions, or both, she started to realize that some of them couldn’t have been taken by passerby. They were too close to the action, or taken too high up. The gears in her mind began turning when she spotted what could only have been a selfie of Chat’s, with Ladybug’s face in the background caught mid sneeze. 

The good thing about having such a reporter best friend like Alya was that she knew how to follow a lead. It took some reverse searches and deep dives into a few blogs to track down a certain handle that kept popping up. Cat-and-Bug-Lover202 may not have raised a whole lot of suspicions at first glance, but the Twitter account was filled with pictures - most of them were reblogs of memes, but every now and again they’d post Chat Noir selfies. And from what she could tell, this is where they were originating.

A lot of emotions warred for dominance. Anger was up there, of course - Chat Noir was clearly hiding a Twitter account, of all things, from her. Which was annoying, but it seemed harmless, so she could let it slide. She had to admit it was pretty hilarious that he’d be running his own meme compilation twitter. And last of all, she was impressed he had managed to keep it a secret all this time. 

Of course, two could play at this game...


	8. Goodbyes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marinette and Adrien spend too much time apart.

Marinette had thought that the hardest part was over - school and university and taking down Hawkmoth. But it turns out that her and Adrien fully immersing themselves in the fashion industry was their greatest challenge yet.

Not just the actual business part of things. If anything, that was a welcome challenge, one that Marinette had thrown herself into with gusto. It was invigorating to build up her brand in the ashes of the Agreste empire. It had given her direction after the greatest challenge of her superhero career had ended. 

No, the hardest part was all the goodbyes. 

They were a new business, a fashion line. That meant a lot of traveling, which meant they were often apart while they traveled. Like when Marinette had to help get their store in London off the ground, or when Adrien had left for a month to meet with investors. This last trip to Milan had been their longest apart yet since they had first started dating ten years ago. 

The house they shared was far too quiet without him and even though she had work and friends to keep her occupied through the day, she missed him laying next to her at night. Her warm kitty, always a reassuring presence by her side through thick and thin. All those restless nights spent staring up at the ceiling had given her plenty of time to think and she had come to a decision.

She never wanted to be without him again. 

Maybe work would keep them apart, but maybe they could get around that. Sitting in the airport terminal, she thumbed the ring in her pocket as she remembered the scene she had set up back home - rose petals, home cooked meal, the whole deal. She knew that he would marry her even if she proposed with a novelty plastic ring, but she also knew he was as much a sucker for romance as she was. But more than anything, she was excited. To see the look on his face, to hear him say yes. 

And she knew once he did they would never be apart. Not even if they were thousands of miles away from each other.


	9. Uncle Jagged

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Small crack fic where Jagged Stone goes to a parent teacher conference.

The bakery closed early that day in preparation for the parent-teacher conference. Marinette wasn’t incredibly thrilled about it - sure she was doing fine academically, but she wasn’t looking forward to hearing her teachers complain about how often she was late to class. That was hardly new to this school year, but it hadn’t gotten better now that she had taken up superheroics on the side. She couldn’t exactly say _that_ though, so she had just resigned herself to getting disapproving looks and possibly being grounded for the next week or two. 

But then the phone rang. 

“Hello, Dupain-Cheng residence, how can I help you?” Her mom’s voice rang out. “Oh! Julie, how are-” She was cut off suddenly. “Oh dear. Yes, of course, we’ll be right over.”

Her papa and Marinette exchanged a concerned look.

“Sweetie?” He called out. “Is something the matter?”

Sabine entered the room. “It’s just awful. Julie desperately needs our help with a baking disaster right now!”

“But…” He glanced worriedly between Marinette and his wife. “Someone needs to take Marinette to the conference.”

“I don’t know…” Sabine rested her cheek against her hand. “Maybe we could-”

She was cut off by a knock on the door. Tom answered it and none other than Jagged Stone walked in. He strummed a chord as he crossed the threshold.

“What’s up, my favorite bakers? Ready to get thrashed at monopoly or whatever tonight?” He looked past Tom and grinned when he saw Marinette. “And the best little rocker lady in Paris! How’s it going?”

Somehow, they had completely forgotten to cancel their monthly board game night with the famous rock star, Jagged Stone. But from the looks of relief on her parents’ faces, he’d come just on time. 

“Jagged, we’ll have to bankrupt you later,” Sabine said. “We’ve got an emergency to deal with. Could you do us a favor though?”

“Absolutely! After all the jams you’ve helped me out of, the only rock and roll thing to do would be to help out right back!” He strummed another rock chord. “So what do you need? A helicopter ride? A makeshift concert? Maybe a personal visit to the school to call out Lila Rossi? 

“That’s all nice, but really what we really need is for you to take Marinette to the parent teachers conference.”

“I…” Jagged’s face scrunched up in confusion. “I suppose? But what-”

“Thank you, Jagged!” Tom hugged the rock star, picking him up off the ground. “Just remember what her teachers say and tell us all about it when we get back.” In no time at all, Marinette’s parents were gone, leaving the two of them alone. 

“So… let’s head over there then?” 

“Uh… sure.” Jagged still seemed a little stunned by what just happened and followed Marinette out the house and across the street to the school.

Marinette liked to think that her teachers handled the last minute change surprisingly well. Relatively, at least. 

“I am very concerned about Marinette’s tardiness record and-”

“She gets the work done, don’t she?” Jagged asked, crossing his arms. 

Ms Bustier sighed, but pressed on anyway. Marinette had always appreciated her tenacity, at least when it wasn’t directed at her. “Yes, but she needs to make a better effort to-”

“ _I_ think its fine. What’s next on the list?”

“Well, Marinette scored a ninety four on her last test…”

Jagged pulled out his phone and put it on speaker. “Penny, Marinette got a ninety four on her test. Is that rock and roll, or do I need to ground her?”

“I- What? Jagged, honey, we aren’t her parents. Marinette, you there?”

“Yes, ms Rolling!” Marinette leaned toward the phone a little, giving an apologetic shrug toward her teacher. 

“Good job on the test. You’re doing great!” 

Jagged frowned as the phone went dark. “Ah well.” He leaned back in his chair and faced Bustier again. “What else ya got?” 

That’s the way it went for all her other teachers as well. Most of them were too baffled to really argue with him. It wasn’t long before they were headed back home, way quicker than what it usually took with her parents. Once the door closed behind them, Marinette noticed that Jagged was looking uncharacteristically sheepish.

“Uh, Marinette? You mind if I share something with you?”

“What’s the matter?”

“It’s just… being in a school again reminded me of how I dropped out way back when.”

Marinette’s eyebrows rose. “Really?”

“Yeah… all to play bass guitar in a band that didn’t last a year. It was a pretty rough time.”

“Okay…”

“I just wanted to let you know that I’m super proud of the rockin’ job you’re doing. I know you’ve got a lot on your plate, but you haven’t let that bring you down even a little bit.”

Marinette smiled. “Thanks, Jagged.”

“No sweat. Now, where’s that Monopoly board?”


	10. Alter Egos

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marinette takes on her most legendary form to date.

Free time for Marinette was hard to come by and her favorite way to spend it was getting crepes and eating them at the gardens. Pleasant company, delicious snacks, and a refreshing atmosphere. All in all, it was a pretty good day in the park with her girlfriends.

Or at least it was, right up until the akuma attacked. Marinette was still trying to figure out what exactly had set today’s villain off, but whatever it was, he had some sort of weird vendetta against women. Naturally, this was very inconvenient for her. Not just because her friends vanished in the blink of an eye in front of her, but also because it made it difficult to find a place to hide and transform while she was stuck in the bushes, mind-controlled boys shambling around the area.

She was still trying to figure something out when Chat Noir arrived on the scene. It was hard to not notice the pun, after all.

“Justice delivery - _male_ ordered!” Her partner said with a grin while striking the akuma victim with a punch to the face. 

The akuma glared at him. “There’s half the set - now where’s the contemptible Ladybug?”

“Pretty sure you mean the lovely Ladybug,” Chat said, dodging the akuma’s attacks. “Guess you’re stuck with me for now.”

Marinette began frantically looking around - Chat’s confidence aside, akumas were always at least a two-hero job and he’d need her help sooner or later. That’s when her eyes landed on the garbage can, which had never failed her in the past. And just like all those other times, it appeared right when she needed it most. 

Some heroes got to pull the Sword of Godric Gryffindor out of a hat in their time of need. Others got Excalibur. Marinette? Marinette got a motorcycle helmet and a poncho. It would have to be enough.

She put on her disguise, easily slipping into her alter ego, Marino. And not a moment too soon - she noticed a few of the mind controlled were sneaking up on Chat Noir while he was absorbed in his fight against the akuma. Thinking quickly, she grabbed the lid of a trash can and tossed it at one of them. It didn’t do much more than knock the guy over, but it did clatter loudly on the ground. 

That unfortunately meant that suddenly Marino was the center of attention, including a couple dozen puppets and the akuma himself, who was lining up their shot to add Marino to the horde.

Fortunately, it also meant Chat Noir had noticed her. Before she knew it, she’d been scooped up in his arms and carried away from the fight. Not a moment too soon - as she watched past Chat’s shoulder, she saw an energy ray blast the spot she had been just a heartbeat earlier. 

“That was awfully brave of you, princess. Not smart, but definitely brave.” He grinned as he talked. 

Marinette blinked up at him in surprise. No one had been able to see past her mask to see Marinette before. “How’d you know it was me?”

“It’s a good disguise, don’t get me wrong,” he replied while setting her down in an alleyway, “but I’ve seen you unmasked in it before.” There was a roar of anger a block away, but getting closer. “Well it was a pleasure but duty calls, princess. Stay safe!” He saluted with a wink and ran into the street.

After a moment, Tikki floated out of her bag. “Are you ready to go help him?”

“Yeah, just give me a minute,” Marinette said. She took off the helmet and poncho, gently setting them back into the garbage. 

“...What are you doing?”

“I’m sure Paris will need Marino again in the future.” Tikki was about to ask something else, but seemed to think better of it. “Spots on!”


	11. Gamer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marinette helping Max test out the limits of his game.

“Aaaand, win,” Marinette said, a smirk on her face as she knocked the last bit of health off of Desperada. She set down her controller and looked at the other person sitting on the couch. “What does that put us at?”

Max pulled the pencil out from behind his ear and added a tally mark to the notebook next to him. “That victory brings the total score to forty two victories for you and thirty nine for me.”

“Not half bad, you’re doing a lot better than I expected.” Marinette reached forward and grabbed a plate of croissants her father had left half an hour ago. She took one and offered Max some. “Did you take my advice?”

“About facing human adversaries rather than artificial intelligence?” Max asked as his hand hovered over the baked goods. It took her clearing her throat before he decided on one. “Affirmative. Just as you had asserted, I had gotten lulled into patterns and routine when fighting a predictable opponent. Once the human element was added in, difficulty was markedly increased.”

Marinette nodded. “A computer might be good to practice every now and again, but once you’ve cracked their patterns they’re done for. People are pretty crafty and you’re never completely sure what they’re up to.”

“Your information is spot on.” Max took a bite of his croissant. “So what is your take on the latest version of my akuma brawler game? I see you’ve identified several favorites.”

“It’s solid, although some fighters aren’t as well balanced as others.”

“True, but a man with the ability to control pigeons shouldn’t exactly dwell on the same level as a woman who nearly caused the extinction of the human race.” Max took a sip of water. “Hence the power level tiers. Mr Pigeon should be facing his fellow tier ones, like Kung Food and Zombisou.”

“I guess it works in that context then. Although,” Marinette said with a smirk, “I can’t help but notice I trounced your tier three Desperada with my tier two Evilustrator.”

“I admit, some of your picks have proven… unorthodox. You are the only one to wield them with such proficiency.”

“Sorry about that. Its just that I like the ones that take extra work and strategy to get the most out of. Playtesting all of these fighters has to be rough.”

“All the more reason I am very glad when you find the time to assist me in my research. Now,” Max said, settling back into his spot. “Ready for a rematch? You’ve only got a three win lead.”

Marinette laughed. “You’re on, Max.”


	12. Kwami Mom

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marinette has a different style of Guardian-ship than Fu.

Closing the trapdoor behind her, Marinette reached behind her neck and unfastened her necklace. The pendant turned back into its familiar fox tail shape as she placed it back in the miracle box, soon followed by a hair band and a thumb ring. So far, no one at school had noticed her extra accessories. Or at least no one had really commented on them.

She’d been afraid at first that the past holders would recognize them, even if they looked different when she used them. But nope, despite Alya complimenting her fox miraculous, she didn’t seem to recognize it at all.

One thing she had noticed after talking with the kwamis was their endless curiosity with her world. They were amazed by little things like markers and keyboards. The first week of her newfound guardianship had been panic-inducing as she tried to tame their wanderlust. It was only after a passing comment by Roarr that she realized why they were so fascinated with the world.

“It is impressive how far paintbrushes have come!” She had said while opening all of Marinette’s markers. “And these, which require no paint at all!”

Almost all of them hadn’t been back in years. A lot of them hadn’t had a new chosen in decades. And a couple unfortunate kwami hadn’t seen the world in over a century. Of course they were soaking it all in while they could! They had no idea when they would get to see it again!

The deal was pretty simple - so long as they behaved themselves, Marinette would take a few of them out every day so they could go out in the world and see what all had changed. Plus, just like now, she would activate all the miraculous so they could all play in her room at once. Usually, this wasn’t much of a problem - no kwami was more unruly than Plagg and level heads prevailed in her room.

What she didn’t account for was the kwami gossiping.

“That Chloe! I knew she was bad when she kidnapped us, but she is such a brat on top of it,” Stompp, the bull kwami, said. “Its such a casual viciousness as well.”

“Well… yes, but I still believe she has potential,” Pollen replied. “I just don’t know how to break her bad habits.”

“It made my heart soar to see miss Alya again.” Trixx rubbed her hands together. “Ah, the adventures we could have had.” She floated over to Marinette. “Are you sure Rena Rouge can’t make an appearance sometime soon?”

“Sorry, Trixx,” Marinette said sadly. “Not for a while at least. Hawkmoth will be watching her.”

The kwamis who had been paired with her friends in class were the most excited about getting to go to school with Marinette. It was another thing that she had learned about them - they bonded with their chosen incredibly quickly. Marinette narrowed her eyes in determination. All the more reason for her to choose good partners for them.

“I’m jussst happy to see my once-massster is doing ssso well,” Sass chimed in, his arms folded in front of him as he floated cross-legged. “Adrien wasss a good chosssen for the brief time we fought. Though I believe he is better sssuited for another…”

Marinette’s heart skipped a beat at the mention of Adrien. 

“Now _there_ is someone famous and noteworthy,” Kaalki said. “Max was a dear, of course, but if I had to choose a second chosen…”

“Speaking of people he’s better suited to…” Mullo turned to Marinette. “So when are you going to ask him out, Marinette?” 

The other kwami began speaking all at once, wanting to know what her plans were for Adrien. 

“If he isss worthy of a miraculousss, then he would be a worthy sssuitor for our guardian, sssurely?”

Her eyes widened as the others murmured in agreement. Thankfully, she was saved from replying when Tikki zipped in front of her.

“Hey! Leave her be.” Tikki’s voice cut through the chatter. “You can’t rush these things. They’re both still young and figuring things out.”

Marinette sighed in relief.

“Besides, she gets all tongue tied around him. It's cute, but it doesn’t help.”

“TIKKI!”


	13. Domestic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marinette gets home from a long day at work to be cheered up by her husband.

Making her dreams come true was turning out to be more tedious than she thought it would be. 

Not that Marinette hated her work, of course. It was just that this time of year was always crunch time in the designing department and Gabriel was practically breathing down their necks at all times. Every single mistake, no matter how small, was worth a verbal lashing. Only a few days into her job and she understood why the turnover at the Agreste fashion line was so massive. 

It would take more than a pompous fashion moghul to break Marinette though. Years of standing up to supervillains had given her nerves of steel. 

Then again, as she trudged up the stairs to their apartment with limbs that felt like lead, even steel could break eventually. And all that exhaustion had finally worn her down enough that she made a mistake. Five weeks without being shouted down by the senior Agreste, gone in a puff of smoke. 

Visions of collapsing face first into her bed the moment she got home flashed through her head, but she was distracted by the smell of something absolutely delicious. Her hand hovered over the doorknob to her apartment as she sniffed. There was no question about it, the smell was coming from inside. A soft, tired smile lit up her face as she walked in. 

Just as she thought, Adrien was cooking in the kitchen, making her favorite meal. By the looks of it, he was nearly done too. He flashed her a warm smile as he put the noodles on plates, dancing to the beat of the music coming from his laptop. Although he wasn’t as good a cook as her mom, at least he put on a good show. She was about to take a seat and watch him when the song changed. 

She grumbled as he stepped behind her, arms around her waist as they swayed to the music.

“Do we really need to do this every time?” 

“If miss grumpy pants doesn’t want to dance with her kitty, then she is free to stop whenever she wants,” Adrien said, pressing a kiss to her cheek. When she turned around to wrap her arms around his neck, she was treated to a Chat Noir smirk. “Ah, m’lady! And here I thought I’d be having dinner with grumpy pants.”

“You’d only have your father to blame then, kitty,” she replied, resting her head against his chest. She closed her eyes and let him lead their little slow dance. “He was being a butt today.”

“Can you blame him? He probably went a whole ten minutes without making an intern cry. No doubt he was about to burst from holding back all that meanness.”

She laughed for the first time that day. “See, that’s why you’re my favorite Agreste.”

His grip tightened ever so slightly around her as he whispered into the crown of her head. His voice was quiet and full of awe as he said, “Right back at you, Mrs Agreste.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay! My beta had a rough week and it took a while to get through the chapters. Expect double posts each day until I'm caught up!


	14. Compass

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marinette goes on a camping trip.

Marinette glanced down at her compass as the five of them walked through the woods. As far as she could tell, they were still on the right track. She slipped it into her pocket and tuned back into the conversation. 

“...I just don’t know about camping out here. What if some bears find our tents?” Mylene looked nervously around at the forest. Maybe she wasn’t the best pick for this trip, but she had really wanted to go and Marinette had a problem with telling people no. “Or even worse - wolves!”

“Why are wolves worse than bears?” Alya asked, then shook her head. “Actually you know what? Forget I asked.” She put a hand on Mylene’s shoulder. “You’ve gotta chill, girl! This is a park, it's not exactly some uncharted forest.”

“She’s right,” Marinette said. “But just in case, I took all the precautions you’re supposed to. We’ll be about as safe as we can be.”

Mylene sighed in relief. “Thanks, Marinette.”

“Personally, I can’t wait until tonight.” Juleka adjusted her grip on her backpack. “I’ve got a few ghost stories I’ve been wanting to try out…” Mylene laughed nervously.

“Well, _I’m_ looking forward to some of my mom’s cooking,” Alya said pointing towards her mother who was leading the group. “She might work at a fancy restaurant, but she’s no slouch when it comes to grilling over an open fire!”

“And don’t you forget it, sweetie!” Mrs Cesaire said over her shoulder with a smile. “We’ve got some good stuff lined up for tonight.”

“What about you, Marinette?” Mylene looked up at her curiously. “This was your idea, after all. What were you hoping to do while we are out here?”

Marinette bit down her immediate response - having some time away from the city and its akumas. Her hands gripped the box holding the horse miraculous. Cell reception might be spotty out here, but even just a call from Master Fu would be enough to send her running back to Paris. Still, getting to just relax without worrying about an evil cackle or explosion ruining her good mood was too good to pass up. 

Realizing her friends were waiting on an answer, Marinette said, “Um, I’ve really wanted to do some hiking out in the woods for a while. Get away from the crowds in the city gardens, you know?”

The others nodded in agreement, completely unsurprised.

“Girl, you could probably give Kim or Alix a run for their money. Literally.” Alya shook her head. “We’ve been walking for a couple hours and you haven’t even broken a sweat!”

“Just because I live in a bakery doesn’t mean I let myself fall out of shape,” Marinette said with a smile.

“Maybe,” Mylene said. “It doesn’t hurt that you keep having to run into class every day too.” 

The girls laughed and after a moment Marinette joined them. It was shaping up to be a great weekend already.


	15. Ultimate Power

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Four miraculous heroes talk about what they'd do with ULTIMATE! COSMIC! POWER!

“Why does Hawkbutt even want your miraculous anyway?” 

Ladybug frowned at Rena Rouge’s question. Would it be alright to tell them now? She’d already let Carapace and Rena Rouge keep their miraculous and it was clear that Master Fu had left Chat Noir in the dark about a lot of things. But now she was the last Guardian - she could do things how she wanted from now on. 

And Marinette had never been a fan of lies and secrecy. 

“Apparently,” she began. “If you wield both the miraculous of the ladybug and the miraculous of the black cat at once, you get ultimate power. The ability to change reality however you see fit.”

There was a long silence as they all continued to stare up at the sky. With the light pollution in Paris, there weren't any stars to see up there, but it was still a relaxing way to spend the end of their patrols. Laying on their backs, their heads next to each other, pretending to stargaze. 

Eventually, Carapace spoke up. “So it’s like a genie then? Together they can totally grant any wish you’ve got?”

“Sure,” Ladybug said, to the giggles of the other two. “Like a genie. And just like a genie, it has consequences. You don’t have a lot of control over the particulars of how your wish is granted, and in order to pull it off something bad will happen to balance it out.”

“Like when Markov wanted to become human, someone else would have to lose their humanity?” Rena Rouge thought aloud. 

“Exactly. That’s-"

“Oh! It’s like the Law of Alchemy! In order to gain something, something of equal value must be given up in return.”

“...I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that wasn’t an anime reference, Chat.”

“Sorry to disappoint, m’lady, but it was from Full Metal Alchemist.”

Ladybug sighed. “ _Anyway_. That’s why it’s so dangerous - and why Hawkmoth can never be allowed to use them. Who knows what such an evil man would wish for, and the cost of something like that?”

There was another pause. 

“So what would you dudes wish for? Personally, I’d like to be able to teleport.”

“I’ll bite,” Chat Noir said. “Why teleportation?”

“I think it’d be super cool never to pay for travel expenses again. Plus getting to spend lunch breaks in other countries would be sweet.”

“Seriously, Carapace? Did you not listen to what I _just_ said?”

“Yeah, yeah, I’d never _actually_ do it I just-”

“No, I mean, there are ramifications. Imagine all the things that could go wrong with teleportation. What if it gave you the power to teleport, but you got stuck in a wall or something?” Ladybug shook her head best as she could, given she was still laying on the ground. “You’ve got to think smaller if you don’t want it to blow up in your face.”

“I guess…” Carapace grumbled.

“See?” Chat Noir made a disapproving noise. “That’s why _I’d_ wish for a new season of Spice and Wolf. Simple, and it benefits more than just me.”

“I swear to all the kwami if that’s another anime-”

“But they’re probably going to come out with another one anyway, right?” Rena interrupted. “You’d just be speeding up the inevitable.”

“Exactly! It wouldn’t be a huge change, just a gentle nudge. Super easy. Barely an inconvenience.”

“I’m surprised you didn’t wish for Ladybug to return your crush,” Carapace said.

Ladybug had been wondering about that too. “Already giving up, chaton? Not that I mind, but…”

“First off, I want to earn your love. Using magic to get it feels gross. Second, you already love me, so I don’t _need_ magic.” Chat tilted his head back to give her an upside down grin, which prompted her to giggle. She reached over and booped his nose.

“Not today, chaton.” She turned to her side. “What about you, Rena Rouge?”

“Hm…” Rena tapped at her chin. “I think… that we could all know each other’s identities. You guys feel like my best friends and I hate that I can’t talk to you about personal stuff. Or just, like, get to know you better.”

Ladybug’s smile turned a little sad. If only she knew how close she was…

“That wish could be twisted to not _just_ us knowing our identities, though,” Ladybug pointed out. “What if the wish makes it so our secret identities are broadcast to all of Paris? Then we’d be done for.”

“...Darn it.”

“What about you, m’lady?” Chat asked. “What would you wish for?”

Ladybug grabbed her chin and gave it some thought. “I’d wish for Hawkmoth’s identity. That way, even if it goes wrong, at least _we_ would know it. It’s small so the cost wouldn’t be too high and would be super helpful.”

“Well dang, dude. I think you win.”

“Fair’s fair, LB.”

“You always have the best plans, m’lady.”


	16. Friends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Many hands make for a light load.

It was a warm spring day in Paris as Marinette sat down in the park with her girlfriends. A cool breeze swept through the blooming flowers, bringing along a pleasant scent. Almost as pleasant as the smell of the delicious crepes they had bought before coming here. 

“I’ve gotta say, girls,” Marinette said as she stretched. “I’ve really needed a day off.”

“What’s been keeping you busy?” Mylene asked with a frown. “I mean I guess we’ve had a lot of homework but…”

“Homework is part of it, sure.” Marinette broke off a piece of her strawberry crepe. “But I’ve also got stuff for class president to do - like that laser tag match here in a couple months.”

A vicious grin crossed Alix’s face. “Right on. Way better than anything Chloe ever did for us.”

“Thanks. I try my best, even if Chloe set a really low bar for us.” They laughed and Marinette continued. “But I’ve also got designs to do. There are a couple competitions I wanted to enter, plus the stuff for Kitty Section, and an actual commission from Jagged Stone! And that’s all on top of trying to expand my wardrobe at the same time.”

“Girl, are you sure about those competitions?” Alya put an arm around her. “If they are dragging you down…”

“If they go over as well as my bowler hat did, then yeah, I’m sure.” Marinette took a bite from her crepe. “Winning a few competitions will be a huge leg up if I want to make it big in the fashion industry.” Marinette sighed. “I might be able to get good progress done on those projects… if I didn’t keep having to watch Manon.”

Alix grimaced. “The devil child?” 

“Yeah… She’s alright most of the time but sometimes she finds my pieces and ruins them. Making me start over from scratch or abandoning the project.”

Her friends looked at each other. Alya shook her head. “Why didn’t you say something sooner, girl? We could’ve gotten started ages ago.”

“Huh?” Marinette blinked at them. “What do you mean?”

“She means that we’re gonna help you out, pigtails,” Alix said, rolling her eyes. She took a deep drink of her slushy before adding. “With all of us helping out, it should be no sweat.”

“Definitely,” Mylene said, nodding. “We just didn’t know how swamped you were!”

“That’s okay,” Marinette tried to say, “You don’t have to-”

“I’ll step up my duties as Vice President,” Alya said, interrupting her. “Plus I can help out with Manon since I’ve got that older sibling skill.”

“Oh! Oh!” Rose bounced up and down in her spot, clapping. “I can help out with the band stuff.”

“Ditto here. My spray paint style might be just what Kitty Section needs.” Alix finished her drink and tossed it into the garbage. “Plus maybe I could give an extra pair of hands with Manon. Tire her out in the park or something.”

“Ooo, me and Juleka could help out with your designs!” Mylene smiled excitedly. “Maybe some modeling or just help with shopping for fabrics?”

As her friends all began hammering out a study schedule to help with homework, Marinette felt like a load was being taken off her shoulders. While she might have been able to do it all on her own, she was glad she wouldn’t have to. But just knowing that her friends had her back… it was almost better than the help itself.


	17. Designer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marinette feels small beside the giants of design.

The last few weeks had been pretty rough for Marinette. Homework and akuma battles had sapped all her creativity, leaving her without much motivation for designing. She was hoping that visiting the historical exhibition on famous designers in history would help spark something inside her, but…

She stepped among the exhibit with hardly anyone around, everyone else gone for lunch. Her footsteps echoed against the stone floors and high ceiling, fading away as she’d stop to take notes from one podium before picking up again as she moved to the next. Walking in front of the larger than life displays of the giants of fashion, being in their literal shadow with her notebook and pencil… it left her feeling worse than ever. 

With a dejected sigh, Marinette sat down on a nearby bench, her back to the fashion icons of decades past. She closed her notebook and pulled out her sketchbook

“Marinette?” Tikki’s voice came from her bag and Marinette looked down into the worried eyes of her kwami. “What’s wrong? You were so excited to see the museum earlier. What changed?”

“I don’t know…” Marinette said, idly doodling in her sketchbook. “Seeing them… it makes me think. What if I’m not good enough?”

“Marinette...” Tikki said, a comforting tone to her voice. She glanced around and floated out of her bag. To her surprise, she didn’t land on her shoulder like she was expecting. Instead, she moved in front of one of the icons. 

“What are you doing? Get back here before someone sees you!”

“Look at these people,” Tikki ordered. If only to humor her, Marinette gave them a passing glance.

“Okay, great. What about them?”

“Every single one of them was once just like you.”

Marinette blinked up at Tikki. “What do you-”

“At some point in their lives, they were full of doubt. Scared. Just starting, and they didn’t know if they’d be as good as the people that came before them.”

“How do you know?” Marinette stood up hesitantly. Her voice was quiet, but it wasn’t from fear of being overheard. “...Did you know them?”

Tikki smiled. “No. But I’ve known enough heroes and met enough humans to know how they think.” She floated in front of Marinette at eye level. “One day, you’re going to be in a museum too. And a young designer, not even out of lycee, is going to stand in front of you and ask if they are worthy, if they could ever hope to be as great as Marinette Dupain-Cheng.”

Marinette smiled and shook her head. It’d never happen… Or could it?

“What would _you_ say to them, Marinette?” Tikki landed on her shoulder, murmuring into her ear. “Would you want them to be too scared to try, afraid that they’ll fall short of you? Or would you tell them to try anyway?”

Wiping away tears, Marinette nodded. “Try. Always at least try.”

“There you go,” Tikki said as she returned to Marinette’s purse. “From the future queen of the fashion industry to you right now.”


	18. Rare Pairs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While helping out a friend with his love life, Marinette gets a little help in return.

“...You’re sure she’ll like it?” Nino asked, shifting from one foot to the other. Marinette couldn’t tell if he was misty eyed from lingering worry or joy at getting a solution.

“Well, she _is_ my best friend, so…” Marinette smiled. “I’d say I know her pretty well.”

“Right, right. Sorry, dude.” Nino tugged at his cap. “I’m just- I don’t want to get this wrong, ya know? It’s our one year anniversary and everything.”

“You don’t need to tell me. There are a bunch of those rolling around now.” Marinette sighed. “Feels like half the class paired off last year. And I’m helping most of them with their anniversaries!”

“Aw, don’t worry, dude. I’m sure its not _that_ bad.”

Marinette raised an eyebrow. “You and Alya. Mylene and Ivan - I’m making a cake for them. Rose and Juleka - bracelets. Nathaniel and Marc - _both_ of them came to me asking for ideas for date locations. Kim and Max-”

“Woah what? I didn’t realize they were a thing yet.”

“They haven’t put a name to it, but they’re basically dating.” Marinette sat down. “Sure they were more recent, but you get my point.”

Nino took a seat beside her. “Yeah… Sorry, dude. It must feel super frustrating, seeing everybody else get together.”

“Wow, you sure know how to make a girl feel better.” Pulling her legs close to her, she mumbled, “And you don’t know the half of it.”

“Cheer up, M,” Nino said, patting her on the back. “Trust me when I say he thinks the world of you. I bet if you asked him, he’d love to go out with you.”

“...Really?”

“No question.” Nino tapped a rhythm against his knees. “Yeah you might want to be clear that’s what you want, though. For a smart guy, my bro can be super dense sometimes.”

“Who’s dense?” 

Marinette glanced at the person walking toward them in the park and fell off the bench when she saw it was Adrien. As she took his offered hand to get back up, she saw Nino quietly slipping away in the background. At least, that’s what she saw for the brief moment before her world became filled by two emerald green eyes.

Well… what better time than now?


	19. Past Lives

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marinette pays a visit to Ladybugs of ages past.

Once again, Marinette found herself in the museum. Usually she wasn’t there for long since they’d just met up with Alix and then head out to wherever they were planning on actually going, but this time there was an exhibit that had caught their attention.

Or, more specifically, it had caught Alya’s and then Marinette’s attention.

“It was all Jalil’s dumb idea,” Alix was saying, gliding ahead of them but facing backwards so she could still talk to them. “He got another of his weird theories and begged dad to set up an exhibit about it.”

“He does that all the time,” Marinette said, remembering all the times Alix had vented about it. “What made this one any different?”

“I dunno. I guess he had more evidence than usual, practically had the exhibit already mapped out too. Plus I think Jalil has been sitting on it for a while, since he asked just when Heroes’ Day was coming up…”

“No wonder your dad greenlit it then,” Alya said, pushing up her glasses. “An exhibit about possible previous Ladybugs and Chat Noirs? It’d be the perfect way to celebrate Heroes’ Day for a museum.”

Alix snorted. “Careful, Al. You sound just like him.”

Before Alya could do more than make a noise of disapproval, they entered the room housing the exhibit. It wasn’t very large, but it was still much more than Marinette had known about. 

“Ooo this is great!” Alya rubbed her hands together in excitement, then dug around in her messenger bag. She shoved a notepad and pencil to Marinette before pulling one out for herself. “You start on that side, and I’ll start on the opposite side!” She wrapped Marinette in a quick hug. “And thanks for helping, M!”

Behind her, the sound of rollerblades became more distant before fading away entirely. She was alone in front of the first statue. It wasn’t hard for her to place it - after all, she had grown up in Paris, France. How could she fail to recognize Joan of Arc?

“Tikki? Does she look familiar?”

Her kwami poked her head out curiously. Her eyes lit up when she saw the figure. “Oh wow! She really does look like her.”

“So she really was a Ladybug?”

“Mhm! Or, she was a Joan of Arc at least. That was her alter ego name.” She explained at Marinette’s confused look. 

While Marinette thought about that, she wrote down the basic facts from the plaque and moved on. This one she needed to read the name of, but she recognized the name once she’d read it. Hippolyta, queen of the Amazonians.

“She was a while ago.” Tikki shivered. “Those were dark times, but she was more than up to the task.”

“Last one,” Marinette whispered as she looked at the final podium. 

To her surprise, it depicted a man in medieval armor and a crown on his head, wielding a very ornate sword. She raised an eyebrow at the name - King Arthur.

“Seriously?”

“That was the last time all the miraculous from the box were used at the same time, in the same place.” Tikki sighed. “It’s a shame Camelot didn’t last.”

“So these were all… past Ladybugs?” She looked down the line. They were pretty big names to live up to if they were. War heroes, queens, kingdom founders...

“In a manner of speaking. They all wore the ladybug miraculous, but there has only ever been one Ladybug. And that’s you, Marinette!”

Marinette gave her a brief smile before returning to staring at the statues. 

“The challenges that every chosen has to face are different. This exhibit is only here because people want to honor you and Chat Noir!” Tikki smiled. “You don’t have to change the world to be important. Just doing what’s right is enough.”

“Thanks, Tikki.” Breathing a sigh of relief, Marinette finished taking notes and walked over to Alya. 

She glanced back over her shoulder at the statues for just a moment, imagining that they were watching over her. Deep in her bones, she knew she was doing them proud.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And I'm finally caught up! Hurray!


	20. Gown

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The gang heads to a high class theater.

The car pulled up to the theater and Marinette took a deep breath. She’d never been to such a high class event and her nerves were getting to her. Was the gown she made herself good enough? Would the people there be able to tell she didn’t belong there? 

Her worries faded a little when she saw Nino, Alya, and Adrien clustered together near the entrance, even if her heart began beating faster when she saw Adrien.

“Thanks, papa,” she said, leaning forward to give her father a peck on the cheek. “Adrien said he’d drop us all off after the show, so you don’t need to stay up late for me.” 

‘Late’ in this case being past twenty hundred hours. Such was the life of the early rising baker.

“If you say so, dear. Don’t be out too late. Have fun!”

She closed the door behind her and walked toward her friends as she heard the car drive away. Alya was the first to spot her, whistling as Marinette approached.

“Dang, girl! Look at you!” Alya walked around her while Marinette stood still. “Is this what you’ve been hiding up in your room this whole time? I gotta say - I’m definitely jealous!”

“For real, dude! Those are some gnarly threads you’ve got.” Nino leaned in conspiratorially. “Way better than what I’ve seen some of these sticks in the mud sporting. And loads better than what daddio Agreste puts out.” Nino nudged Adrien. “Right, bro?”

Adrien didn’t respond, drawing attention to him. His face was red and when he noticed that everyone was staring at him, he coughed and rubbed the back of his neck.

“Y-you, uh, you look really nice tonight, Marinette. Not that you don’t usually look nice, but, ah. More than usual.”

Forgetting her usual awkwardness in front of him, she giggled. “Thank you, Adrien! And thanks for inviting us along. I don’t think I’d ever have gotten to see one of these shows if you hadn’t gotten us tickets.”

“For real, bro! You did us a real solid.” Nino straightened his bowtie. EIther Nino cleaned up really well, or Adrien helped him. And given how Nino was slowly making his suit fall apart, Marinette was assuming the latter. “Now let’s snag some seats.”

As they settled into the show and Adrien slowly returned to his usual self, Marinette felt better than ever about her gown. Having _that_ impact on her crush… She’d have to make more of these. And soon.


	21. Class President

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marinette is great at what she does.

“Alright everybody, stay in your groups and meet up back here for lunch,” Ms Bustier said as they funneled out of the bus.

Marinette was the last out, watching her classmates spread out as they moved through the artists’ market. She watched with a satisfied smile as everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves.

“Way to go, girl!” Alya wrapped an arm around her shoulders as they walked. “You always choose the best places for these field trips.”

“Thanks! I didn’t think this was part of being class president, but it turns out it was just because Chloe never put in the work.” Marinette shook her head while Alya laughed. “This isn’t as flashy as that London trip, but it’s a whole lot cheaper which means we get to do it more often.”

“Plus that means I can tag along since I won’t be leaving the city!”

“Gah!” Marinette jumped when Adrien’s voice appeared at her shoulder, Nino leaving his side to take Alya’s hand. “Oh, uh, h-hey, Adrien.”

“This was a super cool idea! I’ve never gotten to come to the artists’ market before,” Adrien said with a huge smile on his face that warmed her heart.

“Oh, dude!” Nino pointed at an artist busy looking at their phone. “We should get a portrait of us done to, like, remember today by.”

“Wow! That does sound cool. What’d you say, Marinette?”

When he looked at her with such bright, hopeful eyes, how could she say no?

The downside was they had to spend a good chunk of their time standing there for the artist. By the time they had their portrait finished, their classmates were already gathering at the bus stop with Ms Bustier. As the four of them approached, Marinette could hear the happy chattering of her more artistically inclined classmates.

“Remember class, our next stop is lunch in the park. You’ll have an hour to get your meals and finish it since they don’t allow outside food at the zoo.”

Half a dozen conversations all started up at once, Marinette only able to catch fragments of a few. Excitement for the zoo was up there with finding a favorite place to eat, but to her relief everyone seemed to be having a great time so far.

“Relax, girl,” Alya said, bumping Marinette. “You’re doing great.”

“Definitely!” Adrien put a hand on her shoulder, making her heart skip a beat. “This was a great idea. Do you guys want to get lunch together?” He grinned. “I’ve gotta ask since I think Nino will sneak off to hang with Alya anyway.”

Nino snorted and gently punched Adrien’s shoulder, but didn’t actually disagree.

“Sure, blondie,” Alya replied. “Although you’re paying for lunch since you’ll be keeping that portrait.”

He laughed. “That’s fair.” He looked to Marinette. “So where do you want to have lunch?”

Marinette bit her lip. This was quickly becoming her favorite field trip.


	22. Akumatized

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hawkmoth finds a weakness in Marinette's armor.

“Hey, do you guys want to do a sleepover this weekend?” Marinette said as she sat down next to her girlfriends at the lunch table. “We’ll have plenty of cookies!”

“That sounds wonderful!” Rose said. Taking Juleka’s hand in hers, she added, “We’ll definitely be there!”

Alya pretended to give it some thought. “Dupain-Cheng cookies, huh? Say no more, girl.” 

Marinette giggled, nudging her best friend in the side.

“I’d be down. Been too long since I’ve gotten to play some video games with you guys anyway.” Alix shrugged. 

“Oh!” Mylene perked up. “We could invite Lila!”

Her heart sank even as her friends chatted excitedly about it. Alya patted her back.

“Come on, girl. Don’t you think it’s time to put all that stuff behind you two? I’m sure you’d like Lila if you got to know her.”

“I promise, I wouldn’t. She’s a liar! And you know how much I hate liars.”

Alix groaned. “Give it a rest, pigtails. She’s not out to get you.”

“It’s true!”

“Hey, M, you gotta chill. I get you don’t like her, but you don’t have to go looking for reasons that aren’t there. Trust me - one sleep over with her and-”

She was suddenly cut off when a purple mask appeared around Marinette’s face. The rest of the world faded away. Looking at nothing and hearing only the voice in her head, she listened.

“Your friends don’t believe you. They don’t understand how _dangerous_ this girl is.”

Her immediate panic about being akumatized drifted away into a dreamlike state. It was almost as if someone else was feeling the emotion rather than her. And with every word her fear and worry became hazier while her anger sharpened into a deadly edge. 

“But I _ **believe**_ you.”

She felt the truth of his words echo like cathedral bells in her mind. 

“I can give you the _**power**_ to expose lies for what they are.”

The faintest hint of incredible abilities, far outstripping her Ladybug powers, brushed against her thoughts. The prospect filled her with a vicious satisfaction. 

“And you’ll only have to do one favor for me… What do you say?”

Her will was a hair’s breadth away from breaking when she briefly crested the wave of his hypnotic power. She saw her friends in front of her, cowering in fear. Alya with tears in her eyes, hands on Marinette’s shoulders as she pleaded with words that Marinette could not hear. It shocked her to see those expressions aimed at her.

That was enough to startle her, disrupting the hold that villain had silently gained on her mind. Growling, she shook her head. 

“No! I don’t want any part of this, Hawkmoth! Find someone else to be your pawn!”

Hawkmoth said nothing, but Marinette could feel the contempt radiating off him, cold and distant as the akuma left her.

As much as she wanted to feel proud about being one of very few people to have rejected an akuma, Marinette mostly just felt sick.


	23. Buff!Marinette

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You didn't hear it from me, but Marinette is shredded!

“C’mon, pigtails! Someone needs to tag along to make sure I don’t strangle this idiot.” Alix stuck a thumb out at Kim. She shrugged at him and added, “Full offense intended.”

“Yeah I got that, short stack.” Kim leaned forward, using Alix’s head as an arm rest. “So what do ya say? Wanna team up for the afternoon?”

Marinette wasn’t sure why exactly Alix and Kim had invited her to join them on a bike ride along the Seine. Judging from their poorly hidden smirks, she figured they must have expected her to have embarrassed herself by now. Or maybe they thought she would be the neutral third party in their latest race. 

For a moment, she considered turning them down. But then she realized she hadn’t gotten much exercise out of the spots recently. Plus, she really didn’t like those condescending looks. And if she could teach them a lesson, well…

“Sure! Do you want to head there now?”

Half an hour later and they were pulling out their rental bikes. It was a little weird to see Alix ditch her roller skates for a bike, and Kim to be on anything but his feet. The feeling passed as she felt a tension between her two friends. 

“You know the deal, Kim,” Alix said while stretching. “Last one to stop cycling wins.”

“Yeah, duh. This was _my_ dare.” Kim snorted. “As if a pipsqueak like you has the stamina to beat me.”

“So the last person still cycling wins?” Marinette asked. 

“You got it, pigtails,” Alix replied. “Sorry about dragging you into this, but Kim would never admit he lost without someone else around to back me up.”

“I kinda figured it was going to be something like this.” Marinette got on her bike, smiling to herself. “You two about ready?” They clambered onto their seats and nodded. “Then let’s go!”

It started off easily enough, but as the minutes built up past an hour and crept towards two, she could tell that her friends were reaching their limit. From what she could tell, only spite for the other was keeping them going. Marinette, however, was still doing fine. A little sweatier than she was hoping to get today, but that was why she chose the sporty look for this competition. 

She was ahead of the other two when she heard them stopping. After glancing behind her to make sure, she stopped and rejoined them.

“You… you lost, shorty!” Kim was saying, panting heavily. 

Alix shook her head, sweat dripping. “Don’t…. Don’t even.” She gestured wildly at Marinette. “PROOF!”

“Well, you’re both right,” Marinette said sweetly. They looked at her in confusion. “After all, _I_ was the one who stopped last. So.” Her grin turned predatory. “What did I win?”

Marinette went home that night feeling especially tired, but twenty euros richer. 


	24. Pressure

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marinette is calm and collected under intense pressure. Or even when Alix is screaming at her to fumble it.

Staring down the lane, the heavy ball held close to her chest, the tension thick in the air, Marinette stopped to wonder for just a moment how things had gotten to this point.

“Bring home the win, Marinette! No mercy!” Rose shouted, the vicious words sounding strange coming from her sweet voice. That was one of the revelations this night had revealed - bowling brought out the rarely-seen competitive side of Rose.

“Mess up! Mess up! Mess up!” Alix chanted from the sidelines, pounding her fists against her knees. Despite her best efforts, Alix had ended up being the worst at this game. A fact which had caused no end of frustration for her even as she relied on her teammate to make up for her lack of skill. 

“Don’t worry, you’ll do fine!” Mylene said, seemingly immune to the competitive spirit in the air. Out of the four girls, she was the only one that had ever bowled before. The fact that she was an extremely gifted bowler on top of that felt almost like cheating. The only reason she hadn’t run away with this game was that she had been paired with Alix.

That alone was the only reason it had come down to this, the final throw of the game. Alix had managed to get all but one pin down, just enough to almost guarantee their victory. Marinette’s only hope was to get a strike in her first throw - nothing else would do. 

Taking a deep breath, Marinette began to move.

One step forward. Her arms falling to her sides. Her grip tightens on the ball - a bright red one. With the three holes looking almost like dots, she could almost believe it was a lucky charm. And believing in something is the first step to making it real.

Another step forward. Her arm winds back. The weight of the ball resists the sudden movement, but she manages it all the same.

The last step. She lets go near the lowest point of her arc. A hush falls over her friends. The ball hits the ground and the momentum carries her forward a few more centimeters. 

She freezes in place, her eyes glued to the ball’s movement. It’s out of her hands now - literally and figuratively. All she can do is watch and hope. 

The ball barrels down the lane, a blur of black and red. 

It collides with the lead pin and the others go scattering. 

Icy fear grips her heart as she watches the last one wobble dangerously, but in the end, it too falls. 

There’s a wall of noise - the cheers of three girls and the angry disbelief of a fourth. Marinette is only dimly aware of her own screech of joy. 

Marinette and Rose won and victory has never tasted so sweet. 


	25. Order of the Guardians

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Someone's got their eyes on Ladybug. But who are they reporting to?

The lucky charm dropped into her hands and Ladybug narrowed her eyes at it as the sounds of battle raged on around her. 

“How am I supposed to defeat the bulldozer akuma with an egg beater…?” The empty air had no answers for her, so she pulled out her yoyo and began spinning it to leap back into the fight.

And that’s when she saw them. 

Bundled up like they were, it was hard to tell anything about them besides the fact that they were human and were definitely staring at her. Which wasn’t that much of an unusual occurrence in the city except for two things.

First, they were staring right at her, unconcerned with the battle raging around them. Even the explosions and yelling didn’t phase them in the slightest. Most people would take cover, especially with the fighting so close. But not them. 

Second, this wasn’t the first time Ladybug had seen them. For the past two weeks, she’d seen them lurking around during akuma battles. Never getting involved, but never running away either. Always just… watching. It was starting to make her suspicious.

“LB, I could use a hand over here!” Chat Noir’s yell pulled her attention back to the fight. 

By the time she remembered the stranger, she was sharing a fist bump with Chat. She glanced back at where she had seen them, but saw nothing. The shrill beeping of her earrings put thoughts of mysterious strangers out of her mind as she ran for a safe place to hide.

\--------------

“...Based on what I have seen, it is my belief that the Ladybug of Paris is the new Guardian of the Miracle Box,” Initiate Yuhan said. “I have personally witnessed her handing out miraculous to individuals before retrieving them at the end of a specific conflict.”

The five elders nodded. Elder Yong asked, “And how would you judge her capabilities as Guardian?”

“Highly skilled,” Yuhan replied without hesitation. “She seems to be able to peer into the hearts of people and none have been poor fits for their miraculous. At worst, her chosen are occasionally gifted with power before their time, but all have been seamless matches for both the miraculous and the struggle that necessitates their arrival.” 

“Is she well versed in the Guardian arts?” Elder Wuhan leaned forward, her hand resting on her lap as she watched him intently. 

“As adept as one trained outside the monastery can be. She at least possesses a gift for alchemy and a powerful bond with the kwami under her care.”

“None of that matters if she isn’t strong enough to defend the miraculous,” Elder Yahzu growled. “How do we know they are safe in her hands?”

Initiate Yuhan cleared his throat. “Master, I do not believe that will be an issue. Both the ones known as Ladybug and Chat Noir make use of their miraculous far more often than previous wielders have. They are infused with power on a nearly _daily_ basis. Often multiple times a day.”

At once all the elders began speaking over each other. It did not surprise Yuhan. This was nearly unprecedented, after all. The expectation was that, usually, a miraculous wielder might be called on to use their powers once a week, at most.

“Quantity is one matter,” Elder Wuhan said. “But inner strength is another entirely. What feats has she accomplished?”

“I have personally bore witness to Ladybug and Chat Noir each using two miraculous at once,” Yuhan paused to let the whispers die down before adding. “What’s more, I have recovered evidence that the one known as Ladybug has wielded _nearly all miraculous of her box at once_.”

Contrary to the uproar he expected this information to cause, Yuhan instead looked up to see a look of stunned disbelief on all their faces. 

“All those who are in favor of letting the miracle box stay in the care of this Ladybug - say aye.”

A chorus of five ayes sounded as one. 

“I’m glad this is clearly not as pressing an issue as we had expected,” Elder Yong remarked drily. “It gives us time to regroup and gather information. Soon, we will lend our strength to this Ladybug and bring justice to this Hawkmoth villain.”

“But for now, the miracle box is in as worthy hands as it can be.”


	26. Comfort

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Who better to help than a best friend?

It took ten minutes of staring at her skylight in a hot haze before Marinette realized it wasn’t just exhaustion and not being a morning person keeping her in bed. Her throat hurt, she was far too warm, and just everything was sore. When her mom knocked on the trapdoor to her room, asking her to get up, there was only one thing she could say:

“Maman… I think I’m sick.”

A few minutes later and her mother confirmed it - she was sick and as long as Sabine had anything to say about it, Marinette wasn’t going to be leaving her bed until she felt better. One cup of hot tea later and Marinette had just about pulled herself up to a sitting position. Her hand fumbled for her phone and she dialed a number.

“Hey, girl!” Alya’s cheery voice came through the speaker. “You better hurry up or you’ll be late. I don’t think I can stall Ms Bustier for that long if it comes down to it.”

“Thanks, Alya, but I won’t be coming into class today. I’m sick.” Marinette sniffed sadly. Or maybe that was just the congestion. “Can you do something for me though?”

“Sure, girl! Whatever you need, I can do it.”

“Cool. Can you tell Max and Juleka that our gaming session is off? And I won’t be able to help out with art club today, so make sure Rose and Mylene know.”

“Oh, uh, okay. Sure. Anything else…?”

“Uhhhh… oh, tell Nino and Adrien I can’t make the study session. You three can go ahead though. Maybe save some notes for me? If that wouldn’t be too much trouble.”

“Wow, its gotta be bad if you’re turning down some time with mister sunshine.” Alya hummed. “But yeah, of course, girl. No problem.”

“Thank you, Al, you’re the best.” Marinette yawned. 

“You hold that thought, sweetie. Get some rest.”

“Mhm…” Marinette said before hanging up the phone and falling asleep.

\------

Her sleep was fitful, but eventually Marinette woke up to a knocking on her trapdoor again. Even half awake she could tell it wasn’t her mom since it was much more forceful and energetic. Plus she barely had any time to think about it before Alya had burst into the room, so that helped her figure out who it was. 

She was barely conscious when suddenly a whole lot of something was dumped on her bed. It took a full minute of blinking confusedly before she realized what was happening.

“Are these… cards?” She winced at how rough her own voice sounded. 

“You better believe it, girl!” Alya was sitting proudly on the side of Marinette’s bed. “Go ahead and open a few. I’ve also got some presents down there,” she jerked a thumb toward the floor, “after you’re done.”

Still a little dazed, Marinette began reading the cards. Her mood improved with each one she read. Most were pretty simple, but all of them were very sweet and heartfelt. Even as sick as she was, her heart still skipped a beat when she found Adrien’s get well soon card - which was very clearly hand made. 

Marinette set the cards down and looked at Alya, her eyes beginning to water. She was too sick and delirious to deal with all this sweetness at once, darn it!

“Alya… you really are the best friend I could ask for.”

“Right back at you, girl,” she replied with a smile.


	27. Future

Sitting on the bus ride home, Marinette had plenty of time to think about the direction her life had taken in the years since lycee. 

Another day working for her childhood idol, Gabriel Agreste. Who, as it turns out, is an excellent designer but a horrible person. She didn’t have a lot of experience working for other studios, but she got the distinct sense that he was a particularly bad brand of boss. While she had gotten used to that, it still didn’t soften the blow at all when he screamed at her for a minor failing today.

And as much as she wanted to vent to her friends about it, all of them had already said they had plans today. Even Adrien, her chaton, had something else to do.

At least she had her own apartment to go home to. Granted, she didn’t get the delicious bakery smell any more, but at least she could collapse on the couch and watch the Great British Bake Off without anyone judging her for it. That’d be a good use of her time while she built up the motivation to work on commissions. 

With that solid plan in mind, Marinette trudged up the steps to her apartment. Most days, having to walk up so many steps didn’t bother her. Years of superhero-ing had certainly left her fit, after all. But on days like this she just wanted to lay down as soon as possible.

The door swung open and she nearly jumped out of her skin when the lights turned on by themselves and a choir of voices shouted, “SURPRISE!”

Before she could fully figure out what was going on, Adrien was immediately at her side, pulling her close and kissing her temple. 

“Happy birthday, my lady,” he whispered in her ear.

Heart warming affection and embarrassment warred in Marinette. It was very sweet of Alya, Nino, and Adrien to go through all this trouble, but…

“You forgot your own birthday again, didn’t you?” Alya smirked as she pried Adrien off her so she could have a turn hugging Marinette. 

“Alya!” Marinette whined as her best friend laughed at her. “You know how busy I get! Sometimes I just… forget.”

“Well don’t worry, because we’ll never forget about our favorite on the rise designer.”

“Yeah, dude,” Nino said, the last to give her a hug out of the set. “You’re kinda stuck with us for good.”

As they guided her toward a big, delicious looking cake that could have only come from her parents, Marinette thought that wasn’t a bad thing in the slightest.


	28. Team Leader

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marinette takes the lead in a game of laser tag.

“Oh man, I can’t believe I got stuck with you guys,” Kim grumbled. “How am I gonna stick it to Alix if I can’t beat her team?”

Marinette raised an eyebrow. “See that’s the problem with you two. You guys always just think about who has the better team or the faster players.”

Kim stared at her as if she had grown a second head. “Uh… yeah. ‘Cuz that’s how it works.” He stuck his thumb out at Nino and Rose. “And these two aren’t exactly gold medal laser tag warriors.”

“First, Rose is at least twice as vicious as anyone on Alix’s team.” Marinette nodded and Rose bounced up and down in excitement, clenching her laser gun close to her chest. “Second, Nino is a great shot and he’s pretty cool under pressure.” Nino snapped a lazy salute.

“Yeah, whatever,” Kim said, crossing his arms. “What about _their_ team? Alix is almost as good as me, Max is great support, plus Alya and Ivan are good all-round troops.”

“True.” Marinette smiled, cold and calculating. “But what they don’t have is me. Plus they’re predictable.” She motioned for her team to gather around. “Now, here’s the plan…”

\-----

Alix crept forward, keeping to cover while her squad moved behind her. The team was feeling pretty confident, but it wasn’t a feeling that Alix shared. After all, underestimating Marinette was a bad idea. Her plans might be overly complicated sometimes, but they had an alarming success rate. Only an idiot wouldn’t go along with them.

“No way I’m going along with your plan!”

From her hiding place, Alix watched Kim stomp out into the open. The surprise lasted only a few moments before a gleefully vicious smile dawned on her face. Yeah that was about what she expected from Kim. Motioning towards the rest of her team, they all leapt out at once. She really wanted to let her main rival feel this one.

Of course, not a moment after pelting Kim with a volley of lasers, she heard the buzzing of her team’s armor going off. She turned around to see her entire team wiped out and by the time she turned back she saw Marinette leveling her laser gun at her. There wasn’t enough time to dodge before Marinette pulled the trigger.

Later, as they were eating in the cafe, they got to talking.

“Did you seriously just use Kim as live bait?” 

“Yup!” Marinette replied cheerfully as she ate her chocolate croissant. “I knew you’d love to take the opportunity for some overkill if it was directed at Kim, so I had him around a corner from where I knew you’d be coming.”

Alix turned to Kim. “And you just let yourself be used like a big piece of meat in a trap, huh?”

Smirking, he said, “Uh, duh? We totally wiped the floor with you guys!”

“So yeah,” Marinette cut in. “Once you guys got out of cover and we knew where you were, we attacked. One round of fire and the game was won.”

Alix shook her head. Ladybug really needed to choose her to have a miraculous already. Between Ladybug and Marinette, Hawkmoth would be taken down in like a day, tops. 


	29. Flowers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A chapter which my beta described as "so corny."

It had been a pretty miserable beginning to spring and not just because of the constant akuma attacks. Practically every single day of the last two weeks had been dominated by dark skies and heavy rain. The fact that it wasn’t raining at this very moment was simply… miraculous.

Ladybug smiled at her own joke, but it didn’t last long when she looked off into the horizon and saw even more grey clouds. Annoyed, she huffed and leaned back to rest her back against the rooftop.

Which is when she locked eyes with Chat Noir as he hovered over her.

“Were you just going to stand there until I looked around, minou?” Ladybug raised an eyebrow and gave her most disapproving look. “I’ve been waiting on you for half an hour. It’s not like you to keep a lady waiting.”

“Sorry, bugaboo,” he said with a toothy grin. He laid down on his back next to her. “I’ve just been enjoying the weather is all.”

She snorted. “What’s there to enjoy? It's been rainy and awful lately. Just another fun addition to all these akuma fights.” She tapped his nose. “I’d have thought kitties like you would agree with me about that.”

“Well yeah,” he conceded with a nod, “but it’s what happens _after_ the rain that I’ve been looking forward to.”

“Puddles? Colds? What?” 

“You don’t know?” He sat up, suddenly excited.

“...No and I won’t know if you keep being vague.”

“It’ll be better if I show you. Follow me!” 

Without waiting, he jumped off the edge of the roof. Her eyes widened for just a moment before he went sailing up again, carried forward by his staff. He wasn’t even looking back to see if she was actually following, probably because he trusted her so much. With a sigh, she went after him. She didn’t want to disappoint him, after all. 

A few minutes later, Ladybug caught up to Chat just as they reached their destination. He was grinning as she landed. 

“Well? What did you want to-” She was cut off when Chat put his hands on the side of her face and directed her gaze to the gardens below. With the awful weather, she hadn’t had a chance to take a stroll through them ever since spring had begun. A gasp left her as she took in the scene.

It was the most flowers she’d seen in bloom there in a long time. The scent hit her all at once and it had an instantly calming effect. She was barely aware of Chat talking.

“It’s all the rain - the flowers love it! I’ve been making the rounds to the gardens whenever I have the time and it looks like all of them are doing pretty well.” He bumped his shoulders to hers. “And guess what?”

“Hm…?”

“These flowers are just like us. I know it's rough now, but that’ll just make it all the sweeter when we pull through and win for good.”

Ladybug smiled. “Thanks, Chat. I needed to hear that.”


	30. Balcony

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marinette goes shopping for a place of her own.

As she exited yet another apartment, Marinette’s plastered-on smile vanished the moment she was out of sight of the building. 

Seven places she’d visited so far, and not one of them was in her budget, or at least felt like a place she could call home. Her first step into the “fully independent adult” world had become her tripping and falling flat on her face, just like usual. Which didn’t help her fear and sadness about moving out of the bakery at all. 

Part of her wanted to just keep living above the bakery, just stay in her childhood home as she tried to get her fashion business off the ground. But she could already feel her approaching the limits of that space. There wasn’t much room left for her to grow there and if she wanted to expand, she needed somewhere she could call her own.

Especially if her parents were going to insist on her helping out while she was there. While she was used to the work, waking up so early wasn’t doing her any favors. 

There was one more apartment left to check, but it was hard to keep the embers of hope burning as she rode the bus to her last stop of the day. It would be a couple weeks before she could clear enough space in her schedule to just spend a whole day looking at apartments again. 

Her fake smile made its reappearance as she met the person showing her around the place. Her smile began to lose its artificial quality as she was introduced to her potential new home.

No matter how hard she looked, everything seemed fine with it. Recently recarpeted. A nice kitchen. Private washer and dryer. While it was a little more expensive than she’d like, that was just all the more incentive for her to get her fashion line off the ground. There was still something missing, though.

Hesitation weighed down her heart. Was this going to be as good as what she was leaving behind? Is she ready to take this step?

That was when she entered the bedroom and happened to look out the window. Her eyes widened as she saw a balcony. 

Memories flooded her. Long hours spent chatting with best friends. Tending to her plants and sketching in the sunlight. Late night kitty cat visits. Staring at the lights of the city she had come to love. 

Marinette smiled.

She knew then and there that she could do this.


	31. Miracle Box

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marinette struggles under the pressure of being the next Guardian.

Pacing back and forth in her room, Marinette wrung her hands together. Her eyes kept drifting toward where she had hidden the miracle box before snapping back to stare in front of her. 

“I can’t do this, Tikki!”

The kwami in question tracked her chosen as she moved around. “You can and you will. Master Fu entrusted you to become his replacement for a reason, after all.”

“But he didn’t teach me everything!” Marinette collapsed onto her swivel chair and dramatically laid her head on her desk in front of Tikki. “I only barely know how to do the potions. Who knows what other super important secrets were lost along with Master Fu?”

“Those aren’t what you need to be a good Guardian, Marinette.”

She threw her hands in the air. “Then what _is_?!”

Tikki huffed and floated in front of Marinette’s face. “You’ve had the miracle box for a week, right?”

“R-right,” Marinette said, faltering a little under the kwami’s commanding voice.

“What’s the name of the kwami of the dragon miraculous?”

“Longg, of course.”

“You made sure he had a stockpile of spices just for him when you brought him out last time.” Tikki crossed her arms. “Kwami of the snake miraculous.”

“Sass. What are you-”

“You made him a stuffed mouse plushie that I promise he will cherish for centuries. Kwami of the bee miraculous.”

“Pollen, obviously.” Marinette’s worry was receding, replaced by curiosity.

“You ordered her a multi flavored box of honey. We both know just how happy that will make her. Kwami of the mouse miraculous.”

“Mullo. I _was_ Multimouse, remember?”

“Mhm, and do you also remember that you made a snuggly box with cotton and fluff for them whenever you bring them out? And speaking of which,” Tikki said continued, her blood up. “You’re letting them come out and see how the world has changed. Most of them have been in the miraculous for years, or even decades! That’s no small thing, even for a kwami.”

“Okay, okay, I get it!”

“Plus there’s those platters of cheeses you had me take to Plagg,” Tikki said, her passion making her speak over Marinette’s attempts to get a word in. “Those _stunk_.” She gestured a paw to her latest sewing project. “And now you’re making everyone matching sweaters! _In their favorite colors_!”

“I thought they might get cold…” Marinette mumbled.

Tikki sighed. “What I’m saying is, you might not have the magic of the old Guardian order, but you know what’s important.” Tikki hugged Marinette’s face. “You’re going to be a great Guardian, just like you’re already a great Ladybug.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that ends Marinette March! I hope you enjoyed this collection of one shots. And, if you did, be sure to stop by tomorrow, where I'll be starting my contribution to Adrienette April. Its going to be a Snekmouse story~!
> 
> Thanks for reading!


End file.
